The Star Forge, now a fusion of technology and dark side energies, began corrupting the Rakata in order to gain the immense power it required to operate itself and ultimately caused the collapse of the Rakata Empire. While unaware of the semi-living superweapon's ability to corrupt its users, DarthRevan nevertheless limited his contact with the dark side artifact to avoid allowing it to control him as it did the Rakatans. His apprenticeDarth Malak, on the other hand, planned to explore deeper into the Star Forge after disposing of his Master.

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The size of the Star Forge was extraordinary for its time. Capital ships could easily move between the gaps of the three "fins" that radiated outwards from the central spherical structure. The fins extended downward to draw matter from the star of the Rakata system, using it to produce weapons and armament. While having few apparent docks for capital ships, many fighter craft and smaller freighters were able to dock at bays located on each of these fins.

Externally, the Star Forge possessed very little defensive weaponry, save for several turbolaser batteries positioned near its hangar bays. Instead it depended entirely on its massive ship production capability as a means to defend itself. Internally, it was also capable of manufacturing thousands of battle droids for defense, and possessed numerous heavy blast doors that ran throughout the entire factory. It was also protected by a deadly ship-disabling energy field projected from Lehon's Temple of the Ancients on the Rakata homeworld nearby. The field caused ships to malfunction and be captured in the planet's gravity well, sending them spiraling down to the world below.

As was the case with all apparent products of Rakatan dark side energy engineering, the Star Forge managed to survive several tens of thousands of years idling and without an operational crew by relying on its built-in automated repair systems. This trait was replicated in certain artifacts, such as the Star Maps. The Rakatan Builders destroyed the Star Maps after the completion of the Star Forge, but these slowly repaired themselves with the Star Forge's technology. While the data in each one was incomplete by the time the reformed Revan discovered them, their combined information was enough to reveal the location of the Star Forge.

As an artifact of the dark side, the Star Forge corrupted those who used it, feeding its desire for death. Ajunta Pall hinted that it may have been known to, and used by, the early Sith.

After having his memory erased by the Dantooine Enclave Council, Revan was directed to rediscover the location of the Star Forge, while it was under Malak's control who used it to strengthen the Sith fleet with a massive number of ships. Revan boarded the Star Forge to confront and kill Malak. It was destroyed at the end of the Jedi Civil War (3956 BBY) by a Republic fleet aided by Bastila Shan's battle meditation.

Immediately prior to his defeat at the hands of Revan, Malak attempted to harness a heretofore unexplored property of the Star Forge. Using Jedi captured from the destroyed enclave on Dantooine, Malak was able to incorporate them into the Star Forge itself, which was seemingly capable of harnessing the power of Force-sensitives and channeling the power into a particular subject—in this case, Malak himself. The Jedi in the Star Forge were unable to become one with the Force while in this state, and Malak could use the energy inside the nearly lifeless bodies to regain his strength. The drained Jedi were apparently killed in the process. Revan sabotaged the system during his battle with Malak on the Star Forge Viewing Platform and it was subsequently destroyed along with the rest of the Star Forge.

After its destruction, the Star Forge fell into obscurity within the galactic community. The Republic, at the urging of the Jedi, felt it was unnecessary and detrimental to the rebuilding of the Republic to have the knowledge of the previously unknown Rakata surface. In their opinion, a reemergence of a culture that had once enslaved much of the known Galaxy would incite panic or fear. As a result, the Lehon system—with the wreckage from the final battle of Jedi Civil War, including the remains of the Star Forge—were quarantined. Only scant and obscure mention of the system and the Star Forge were known.[3]

Sometime after 3956 BBY, Revan led a group of Ongree-slaves to a complex on Nar Shaddaa. He gave them the Infinite Engine, which at the time, only was the size of a fingernail, but later grew to the size of an Ongree. Revan taught them to sacrifice their dead bodies and dedicate their newborn to the machine, and it would give them food, water, shelter and droids to defend them in return. Just like the Star Forge, the engine could create almost anything from almost nothing. In his diary, Revan claimed that sooner or later, they would create their own galaxies.

In 1000 BBY, Darth Bane had begun traveling the galaxy looking for information about the Sith predecessors to the Brotherhood of Darkness. His inquiries took him to the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban and then to the Lehon system while seeking information regarding Revan and Malak. During his approach to the Lehon system, he saw the still untouched remains of the Star Forge and the wreckage of the final battle. Large pieces of metal had fused together, creating a ring-like construct around the planet Lehon. The remaining pieces littered the system similar to an asteroid field.[3]

Deck 1 was a hangar in the Star Forge. During the Battle of Rakata Prime, the redeemed JediRevan, aboard the Ebon Hawk, landed on Deck 1.
There, several Jedi told him to find Bastila Shan, but were soon attacked by Dark Jedi. Revan helped defeat the Dark Jedi, and continued deeper into Deck 1 until Darth Malak sent
droids to kill the Jedi on board. Revan defeated the droids and more Dark Jedi, before proceeding into Deck 2. When Malak learned that Revan was on board, Malak sent all available troops to fight Revan. After defeating Malak on the Viewing Platform, Revan returned to Deck 1, where he informed the crew of the Ebon Hawk that Malak was defeated. Revan escaped the Star Forge aboard the Ebon Hawk.

Malak knew that his Sith underlings would be no match for Revan, but they would be able to slow Revan down, giving Malak enough time to set up the Star Forge's defenses, which were infinite battle droids constantly created by the Star Forge. Revan defeated the garrison, and took the elevator to the Command Center. Before the final battle, Revan managed to use the unique powers of the Star Forge to construct a set of robes that would distinctly power Revan to greater heights in the Force than Malak even knew was possible.

Built near the summit of the Star Forge, the Viewing Platform was used to observe what was going on outside the space station. It was accessible via turbolift from the Command Center.

During the Jedi Civil War, Darth Malak brought Jedi he had nearly killed on Dantooine to the Viewing Platform, placing their bodies into cells to prevent them from becoming one with the Force and augmenting his own dark power. When the redeemed Revan confronted Malak on the Viewing Platform, Malak used the captured souls to replenish his life, killing them in the process. To defeat Malak, Revan allowed the Jedi to become one with the Force, and mortally wounded his former apprentice. Malak died on the platform, which was destroyed shortly thereafter, along with the rest of the Star Forge, following Revan's escape.

In the non-canon dark-side ending of Knights of the Old Republic, the reborn Darth Revan and his apprentice Bastila trick the Republic into attacking the Star Forge in order to distract Malak; once they arrived, Bastila and Darth Revan fought throughout the station to the command center, where Revan faced Malak's three most powerful Dark Jedi Masters (each with different robes). Malak promises that the one who delivers the killing blow to Revan will become his new apprentice. Revan and Bastila fought and killed all three of them.

Bastila remains in the command center in order to turn the tide of the battle in favor of the Sith fleet, while Darth Revan fights his way to the observation platform, where he confronts and brutally slays his former apprentice Malak and the Sith fleet destroys the Republic fleet.

Darth Revan returns to Lehon, where the celebrating Sith officially recognize him as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Revan then takes control of the Star Forge, and he's poised to unleash the Sith fleet on the Core systems. However, Revan relocates back to Korriban, where he experiences an increasing number of visions of what he'd seen of the True Sith between the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. He then abandoned his conquest of the Republic and instead ventured into the Unknown Regions to face this threat, nominally leaving Bastila Shan in charge. Without a strong dark-side user to protect it, the Star Forge went dormant and stopped all production or activity.

There was also a deleted scene where the Star Forge was to fire a beam that could control gravity. This beam was to be shot at one of the Republic ships and drag it into a Hammerhead-class cruiser, destroying both. This was cut in the end.

While the Star Forge is no longer considered part of the canon and is now classified as part of Star Wars Legends,[4] a similar space station called Starkiller Base appears in the 2015 canon film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Like the Star Forge, the Starkiller Base was a space station which drew in energy from a star to convert it into energy. However, instead of converting the material to make starships meant for conquest like the Star Forge, the Starkiller Base redirected it through a destructive beam powerful enough to destroy an entire star system.[5]